1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sailing control system of a boat equipped with one or more than one outboard motor including an engine and one or more than one operator station to control the hull.
2. Background Art
A boat, such as a motor boat, is equipped with an outboard motor including an engine serving as a boat propeller at the aft of the hull. An electrical signal line from an engine control unit is connected to a start switch (hereinafter, abbreviated to SW) and a stop SW mounted at the operator station, so that the boat driver is able to start and stop the engine under his control.
The throttle actuator and the shift actuator of the outboard motor are mechanically connected to the control lever provided at the operator station via a wire cable. A shift cable is provided to put the shift actuator into neutral, drive, or reverse. A throttle cable is provided to control the throttle opening for the outboard motor. With these components, the boat driver directly controls the throttle opening and the shift position of the outboard motor using the control lever.
As has been described, a typical sailing control system of a boat in the related art is formed by linking the control lever at the operator station to the throttle actuator and to the shift actuator in the outboard motor via the mechanical cable mechanism.
In order to assist the boat driver in control power with the system configuration described above, there has been a proposal to interpose a driving motor and a driving unit between the control lever and the cable.
Also, in some cases, a boat propulsion system that omits the mechanical cable between the operator station and the outboard motor, and instead detects a quantity of lever operations at the operator station using a control unit (ECU) in the outboard motor has been proposed as is disclosed, for example, in JP-A-2000-313398.
In the related art, when the outboard motor is equipped to the hull, a mechanism that pushes and pulls the wire cable and the wire connecting the operator station and the outboard motor and a harness component for SW signal lines and the harness for the power supply system are necessary. In the case of a boat, these components occupy a large proportion of the interior of the boat. Moreover, when the outboard motor is attached to the hull, a large number of man-hours and a long adjustment time are required to mechanically connect the throttle and the wire cable for shift operations.
In addition, when more then one operator station is installed, the mechanical configuration around the wire cable becomes more complex, which causes both the man-hours and the cost needed to attach the outboard motors to increase.
Further, should a mechanical error occur in a component forming the mechanism that pushes and pulls the wire cable and wire, it becomes difficult to detect such an error. In the event of an error, the boat driver has to make a determination from the behavior of the hull.
Furthermore, in the case of the system to detect the boat steering state at the operator station using the ECU in the outboard motor by merely omitting the mechanical cable, the line length of a signal line used to prevent a malfunction caused by electrical noises is limited, and the distance between the operator station and the outboard motor has to be shortened. As a consequence, the installation location of the operator station in the hull is limited.
Hence, this system is not applicable to a case where two operator stations are installed, for example, one at the first deck and the other at the second deck. In addition, once noises are superimposed on the signal line used to transmit a detected quantity of operations on the control lever at the operator station, it is difficult to make a distinction between the noises and the signal. This poses a problem that there is a risk of a malfunction of the outboard motor.